benedict heezog



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(N0 ModeL) P. B. HERZOG.

BELL FOR LATENT SIGNAL TRANSMITTERS. No. 315,941. Patented Apr. 14, 1885 6 ntral wm xwo co 844W (N0 ModeL) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. F. B. HERZOG;

- BELL FOR LATENT SIGNAL TRANSMITTERS.

No. 315,941. Patented Apr. 14, 1885.

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UNITED STATES I PATENT @rrrca F.' BENEDICT HERZOG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

BELL FOR LATENT-SIGNAL TRANSMITTERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 315,941, dated April 14;, 1885.

7 Application filed March 5, 1885. (No modeLl To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, F. BnNEDIorHERzoG, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Bells for Latent-Signal Transmitters, of which the following is a specification.

In Letters Patent No. 289,834, issued to me December 11, 1883, I have described an auto- -matic variable electric signaling instrument applicable to telephone and many other uses, the main feature of which is that, although the instrument may be set at one station to transmit a desired signal to another, yet the signal when so set will not be sent to the receiving-station by the sending-operator or is the case in all instruments of the kind known generally as transmitters, but my instru ment retains the signal as setin a latent state ready to be released until it is so released directly or indirectly from the receiving-station by the operator, who, if he desires to discover at what signal the instrument is set, actuates certain releasing mechanism, whereupon'if the instrument has been set to transmit any signal, that signal would be transmitted to the receivingstation without any further co-operation of the sending-operator after he has once prepared the signal. In this and in contemporaneous applications I call such an instrument a "latent-signal transmitter, for the reason that the signal so set remains latent until released by the action of the receivingoperator.

My present invention relates, principally, to the application of such apparatus to ho tels, in which each guests room is furnished with such a latent-signal transmitter electrically connected with the clerks office, by

which the guest can signal to the hotel-clerk his various wants. The guest can set this instrument at pleasure, and can then signal to I employ two separately operative circuits connecting the-guests room or calling-offices with the clerk's or receiving office, one circuit room and two distinct common return-circuits, one'for releasing and transmitting the guests signal and the other for calling the clerks attention, as described and claimed in the last-named application.

by the act or at the moment of setting it, as

In another application (Division B of the above-named application) I have described and claimed a further improvement upon the system described and claimed in this lastnamed application, Serial No. 148,374, which consists in so constructing and connecting the guests transmitter that the mere act of set ting the instrument automatically signals to the clerk by means of the annunciat-or that the instrument has been set, as therein-described, thus making it unnecessary for the guest to press a separate push-button or circuit-changer in order to call the attention of the clerk to the fact that the instrument is set. The main object of my present invention is to provide means by which the hotel-clerk can at any moment operate a bell or call in the guests room for the purpose of calling or waking him at any hour or in case of fire, and still not cause it to sound more often than required, or not at all, if desired at any time.

To this end my invention consists, first, in arranging in the guests room and in the trans mitter circuit an electric bell or call, so that it can be rung by the clerk from the office when specially desired, and at the same time in providing means by which this bell or call may readily be rendered operative or inoperative by the guest or any other person at pleasure, in case it is desired only to use it occasionally; and, secondly, in so connecting the bell and so constructing the transmitter itself that the mere act of setting it to transmit some signal. automatically disconnects this bell from the circuit, (if it has been placed therein,) and so that it remains inoperative until the instrument has been released and. has completed the transmission of its signal, and sothat when this has so completed its sigsignal transmitter with the front of the case partially removed, and showing its mechanism.

Each guests room or branch office (as many as desired) is connected by a separate circuit, as, &C.,WIt-l1 the central or clerks office situated either in the same or another building. Each of these individual circuits includes a latent-signal transmitter, A 0, 8m., and a cir- "cuit-changing button or key, d f, 8m, placed in theguests room, and a circuit-changing device or spring-jack, .D F, 850., and an an nunoiator, H J, 8m, placed at the clerks ofiice. After passing through the annunciators all the circuits unite, as shown, and then lead through an electric bell, K, which rings, and continues to ring, if desired,when the annunciator is dropped in order to call the attention of the clerk. From this bell the circuit leads through a battery, L, of sufficient strength to Work the annunciators in the usual manner, the other end of which is connected either with a ground or metallic return circuit, Z,

which also extends to and connects with all the guests rooms, as shown. This return wire, together with the separate annunciator-circuits to each room, forms a complete annunciator system, by which any guest can call the clerk.

by simply depressing his key d e f, &c., the ef-. feet of which is to close his individual circuit by connecting it with the common return-circuit, as clearly seen from the drawings. Normally the keys d. f, 8rd, connect with their upper contact-points, as shown, so that the individual circuit leads through the guests trans- ,mitter'AG, 820., and thence through a com mon return-circuit, back to the clerks office, whence it leads through a battery, M, a switch and a.receiving-instrument, N, the other end of this instrument being connected to the spring-jack plug a, insulated on the under side, so that by thrusting this plug into anyparticular spring-jack the individual circuit is broken through the annunciator and connected with the receiving-instrument N and battery M. The latent-signal transmitter consists call for a fireman, for example. By means of a knob (not shown) attached to the spindle 0 he turns the spindle to the right, thereby moving the pointer X to the right until it rests over the word Fireman on the dial,'and then presses the callingkey d, which of course may be made in the form of a push-button, or made a part of the transmitter for convenience, if preferred. This operates the. corresponding annunciator, H, and calls the attention of the clerk. The clerk thereupon, as soon as'he is ready to receive the signal, introduces the plug a in the spring-jack D, which IIllIOdllOtS the battery M and receiver N into the circuit and causes the guests transmitter to be re leased and send in its conventional signal, which will be understood by the clerk, andin this casewill mean fireman. Asounder,or

any kind of receiving-instrument N, may be used; but I prefer to employ avisual indicator provided with a dial and pointer, as;

shown, which .follows the pointer of the transmitter, and is driven by it step by step in the well-known manner, so that the clerk is enabled to see at a glance, without counting, what the signal is, thus avoiding mistakes and saving time. any of the transmitter-circuits (the return-circuit m being open at the clerks office) the transmitters may be set, and will remain so without being released when the keys df, &c.,.

are depressed to call the clerks office, these keys simply acting to close the individual circuits through the common return-circuits Z without affecting the transmitters, which are operated on an independent return-circuit, 11.

According to this system any numberof guests may set their transmitters at once, because the:

As there is normally no current in.

signals are not sent until the clerk is ready to i receive them, when he releases them one by one, as desired. By observing the return of the pointer of his transmitter, or by listening,

to the noise of the clock-work as it unwinds, or to the noise made by the armature in moving, the guest is informed that his instrument has been released, and that his want is known f to the-clerk.

The apparatus thus far described is parthe clerk. I will now describe this by .reference to Fig. 2 and to the transmitters O of Fig. 1. I include in the circuit of the transmitter an electric bell or call, E, of any ap proved description, and capable of being operated in any desired manner by .a proper current from the clerks office. Furthermore, in order that this bell may be removed from circuit, so as not to interfere with the opera.

tion of the transmitter, receiving apparatus at the office, or to disturb the guest when hedoes not wish to hear its sound, I interpose. in the circuit a cut-out, q, within .the transmitter-box, and connect the ends of the bell by wires or flexible conductors to a doublefaced plug, I, by thrusting which into the cut-out the bell may be instantly cut into the circuit at any time, as will clearly be seen from the drawings. From the cut-out q the circuit leads through the electro-magnet, and then through the transmitting-spring and break-wheel, and thence to the key f, as shown. As it may often be desirable that the bell should remain permanently in circuit, except when the transmitter is set to transmit a signal, in which case it should be rendered inoperative, so as not to interfere with the correct transmission and reception of the signal, I have devised an arrangement whereby the bell is automatically disconnected from circuit by the act of setting the instrument, and reconnected when the instrument is re leased and has finished sending its signal. To accomplish this result, I fix to the settingspindle 0 an arm, R, which, when the instru ment is unset, as shown, bears against the spring and holds it clear of the contact-point s. Vhen the instrument is set, the arm is turned to the right, thus allowing the spring S and contact-point to connect and cut out or short-circuit the bell-circuit, (and the hell, if it be in circuit,) as clearly shown in the drawings, which short-circuit connection is again automatically broken when the instrument unwinds and the arm returns to its original position and raises the spring clear of its contact-point. The spring, however, is set and adjusted so as not to be raised off from the contact-point until after the breakwheel has completed the signal, so that, should the current in circuit be sufficiently strong to operate the bell when out in circuit, it could not interfere with the signal.

I have particularly shown and described my invention as applied to one of the forms of my latent-signal transmitter; but after the above explanation. it will readily suggest itself to those skilled in the art that it can be applied to other forms thereof and to other kinds of signaling-instruments, and I therefore do not confine myself to the arrangement shown.

XVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. The combination, at a sending-station, of a latent-signal transmitter, abell or call receiving apparatus to be actuated from a distant station, a call-transmitting apparatus, and a circuit-controller by which the calltransmitter may be operated without releasing the latent-signal transmitter if set, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a latent-signal transmitter and a hell or call at a sending-station, a circuit-controller at a distant station for releasing the 1atent-signal transmitter and operating the call, and circuit-connections between the two stations, together with a cutout at the sending-station, whereby the bell may be cut out when desired, substantially as described.

3. The combination of a latent-signal transmitter, calling apparatus for actuating receiving apparatus at a distant station, a hell or call receiving apparatus, and a cut-out therefor at each of two or more sub-stations, a circuit-controller at a central station for releasing the latent-signal transmitter and operating the call, and an annunciator for receiving the calls from the sub-stations, and circuitconnections between the two stations, together with means at the central station for operating'any desired call provided that it is in circuit, substantially as described.

4.. The combination, ata sending-station, of a latent-signal transmitter, call-receiving apparatus, a circuit controller, and electrical connections whereby the call-receiving apparatus is automatically cut out of circuit by the operation of setting the latent-signal transmitter, substantially as described.

5. The combination, at one station, of a latent-signal transmitter, call-receiver, circuit controller, and electrical connections whereby the call-receiver is always out of circuit during the operation of the latent-signal transmitter and is automatically cut in again after the signal-transmitter has sent its signal, substantially as described.

6. The combination, at one station, of a latent-signal transmitter, a call-receiver, a circuit-controller, and electrical connections whereby the call-receiver is automatically cut out of circuit by the act of setting the latentsignal transmitter to transmit its signal, remains out of circuit during the operation of the latter, and is again automatically cut into circuit when the transmitter has finished sending its signal, substantially as described.

7. The combination, at one station, of a latentsignal transmitter, call-receiver, and manually-operated cut-out, together with a circuit controller and electrical connections, whereby the act of setting the latent-signal transmitter automatically cuts out the callreceiver during the operation of the latentsignal transmitter, if, during such operation, it is in circuitof the manually-operated cutout, substantially as described.

F. BENEDICT HERZOG.

\Vitnesses:

D. SIDNEY APPLETON, Jr., Jiis. P. HALL. 

